Two corporate brands with major North Texas mojo – the Dallas Cowboys and Bank of America – are coming together in a new high-profile project announced today.Bank of America has 15,000 employees in North Texas. TheCowboys are, well, the Cowboys. The Cowboys are building out The Star, the new team headquarters/entertainment and office park in Frisco.
Bank of America will be The Star’s first corporate tenant.

Think of the new operations center as a branch on steroids. Clients and potential clients will be able to access staff from five Bank of America operations: Merrill Lynch, U.S. Trust, business banking (revenues from $10 million to $50 million), commercial banking ($50 million and up) and home loans.

About 200 employees will be relocated from other North Texas locations to a new 60,000 complex of offices and meeting rooms.

Offering this variety of one-stop services has been part of the banking giant’s strategy for about three years, said Richard Holt, president of Bank of America’s Dallas market.

“We are doing similar moves in other locations in North Texas, most not as publicized as this one,” he said.

The new facility does not mean Bank of America is pulling out of other North Texas locations.

“We will maintain our presence everywhere we are already located,” he said.

The 91-acre Star development is set in a particularly high-growth part of the region. Holt said clients from north of Fort Worth to McKinney will find it an easier drive than heading into, say, downtown Dallas.

Move-in is pegged to ongoing construction. Holt said he hopes to see the new center open next spring or early summer.

Bank of America has been the Cowboys’ official bank for 13 years. That had something to do with the decision to lease space in The Star, Holt said.

“We do business with those who do business with us,” he said.

Connecting this way with the high-visibility Cowboys was also a good way to let people know about the larger co-location strategy, he said.

The Star includes 398,000 square feet across 8 floors of Class A commercial office space. It also includes Dallas Cowboys business and football operations as well as host team practices.

The Cowboys had previously announced a bunch of smaller companies coming to The Star:

Frisco-based Next Step Dance, which trains more than 700 youths in a variety of dance forms.